October 4, 2017

A new study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, examines the association between lower meat consumption by women during pregnancy and increased risk of substance misuse by their children during adolescence. read more

August 9, 2017

Publishing in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology, researchers looked at the effect of marijuana on cardiovascular
and cerebrovascular mortality and reported that longer duration of marijuana use is associated with an increased risk of death from hypotension. read more

June 7, 2017

Publishing in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health scientists report that cannabis use in adolescence is associated with an increased risk of harmful substance use in early adulthood. read more

April 5, 2017

March 3, 2017

In a Personal View article to be published in the Lancet Psychiatry, the authors explain that increasingly liberal cannabis laws in some countries and the increasing potency of cannabis worldwide mean that we need to think about whether and how cannabis can be made safer.

August 31, 2016

The extent of marijuana use in the USA is explored in a paper published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal with the authors reporting an increase in prevalence and frequency of use in adults since 2007 alongside a decreased perception of harm from the drug. read more

June 16, 2016

The Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health have released a report which discusses the current and possible strategies for dealing with legal and illegal drugs and calls for decriminalisation. read more

May 26, 2016

Cannabis is a class B drug in the UK but is in use for therapeutic purposes in a number of countries for various diseases, and a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports has reported that e-cigarette devices could be effective in administering therapeutic doses of the drug. read more

May 17, 2016

Psilocybin, the active component of magic mushrooms, is being seriously considered as a therapy for people with treatment-resistant depression. One in five people suffer from depression at some point in their lives – a significant proportion of whom cannot be helped with any current psychotherapy or drugs. In 2012 researchers published a paper which used fMRI scans to show the effects of psilocybin on the brain. A related paper, published at the same time, suggested that psilocybin could be a useful tool in psychotherapy. The researchers have now gone on to test the safety of psilocybin in a small group of patients with treatment-resistant depression. They are publishing their new findings, funded by the Medical Research Council, in The Lancet Psychiatry. read more

May 17, 2016

Psilocybin, the active component of magic mushrooms, is being seriously considered as a therapy for people with treatment-resistant depression. Publishing in The Lancet Psychiatry journal a group researchers have now gone on to test the safety of psilocybin in a small group of patients with treatment-resistant depression. read more

February 17, 2016

Publishing in JAMA Psychiatry a group of scientists have examined the mental health effects of cannabis use and report that within the population in which they looked cannabis use was associated with increased risk for substance abuse disorders in the following years, but was not associated with any increased risk of depression anxiety. read more

March 31, 2015

A new study in the journal BMC Public Health surveyed over 16,000 14-17 year-olds in North West England and asked participants about their alcohol and tobacco-related behaviors. The authors report that one in five had used e-cigarettes, and that they observed a link between alcohol consumption and the likelihood of e-cigarette access. read more

March 5, 2015

Illegal drugs are gaining increased attention in the research community. A combination of complex regulations, differing requirements for clinical versus scientific research and limited funding opportunities have provided many obstacles for the research community, but some still feel it is worth attempting. Prof. David Nutt, former Chair of the ACMD, has been one of the most vocal proponents of research with psychedelic drugs. He and his team are now resorting to crowdfunding to get sufficient money to finish their basic research into the impact of LSD. read more

October 31, 2014

A paper published in the journal PLOS One has analysed the use of recreational drugs in women with normal pregnancies and those with foetal abnormalities. In a small sample size, they reported an increased incidence of foetuses with gastroschisis born to younger mothers, and an increase in abnormalities of the central nervous system in foetuses born to mothers who used recreational drugs before conception. read more

July 16, 2014

A study in Schizophrenia Bulletin of the effects of THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, reported strong evidence that it can cause short-term paranoia and identified psychological factors that can lead to feelings of paranoia in cannabis users. read more

April 15, 2014

Researchers in the US found a correlation between casual use of cannabis and the size, shape, and structure of brain regions involved with motivation, emotion and reward in a small sample of young adults. The report was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. read more